PROJECT CONCEPT & DESIGN

BROADWAY LOFTS

and Entertainment

PROJECT CONCEPT

The current generation of young urban professionals are green aware and conscious that commuting from the suburbs wastes time, and contributes to global pollution. Most want to live in the city where many work and most play. With their limited resources, normally their only option to afford the higher city rents in quality projects is to roommate, which is a compromising lifestyle in the opinion of nearly two thirds of this generation. Sixty two percent of the respondents to our national survey of young adults stated that they would rather live in a studio they can afford on their own and would be willing to pay up to $300 a month more to do so. (Source: Futures Company survey, September 2009).

Our loft units have livable square footage of units twice their size

Our highly efficient studios have the functionality of much larger one bedroom units

Views of our one bedroom units

...and of our two bedroom units

Most California apartment projects have a limited number or no studios, notwithstanding that studios rent quicker and turnover less frequently. Although the apartment occupancy rate in California has dropped from 94.2% in 2006 to the current level of 93.7%, Glendale occupancy rates for the eight large projects surveyed was 98.64%.

"Pent up demand grows for apartments." Twenty-somethings, who moved back in out of necessity, want out of parents' home as soon as their employment prospects improve. The roommate thing also gets stale for people who had their own space until the recession struck. A huge Generation Y cohort of young adults should be avid renters – they delay marriage and kids to build careers and many won’t think about buying suburban houses until they have families (Source: Urban Land Institute, 2010 Emerging Trends in Real Estate).

Upscaled entertainment venue on Maryland

The net yearly migration into California of 100,000 and the 500,000 plus young Californians that have and will continue to come of age each and every year, are creating the pent-up demand the Urban Land Institute is referring to. There have been between 500,000 and 600,000 births in California every year since 1990 insuring a continuation of this number of young Californians coming of age each year for at least the next 20 years.

On the supply side, no new apartment projects are in the pipeline. Practically none of the multifamily architects in Southern California have contracts to produce working drawings for new projects. These contracts, once executed, are the start of at least a 2 year process to bring new apartments online. Without increasing supply, as the economy improves the released pent up demand that ULI has noted will drive up occupancy and rents of the currently vacant 189,210 units in California, almost none of which are in Glendale.

The Glendale Project is the first of a series of Young Urban Communities being developed to satisfy a portion of the large, pent-up demand that will release as the economy improves. These Young Urban Communities will be designed to satisfy the largely unserved market for quality affordable urban housing for the mostly single, young urban professionals. These projects will be high density urban infill products located in destination urban locations surrounded by restaurants, shops, cinemas, public transit and other urban amenities like the Glendale Project.

The lofts and studios will have the quality, ambiance and price to attract the top 30% of the young single adults, many of which are college educated professionals beginning their careers. As children of upper middle class Baby Boomers, these young urban professionals have high expectations. Broadway Lofts and Entertainment has been designed with the quality finishes to meet these expectations. This Project will include entertainment and restaurant venues on the ground floor with 208 quality apartment lofts and studios above. Glendale has 12,000 young adults who can afford the Project’s target rents.

The Project site is in the middle of an amenity rich environment

PROJECT DESIGN

Directly across the street from this amenity rich site is one of two food courts, within three blocks, with six small restaurants, including Panda Express, Baja Fresh, Daphne's, Coldstone Creamery and others, all within the daily dining price range of the Project's target market.

The Project will be at the center of Glendale’s Planned Entertainment District

With the downtown location and onsite amenities, including the coffee café lounge, entertainment venue, and Sky Terrace, it is expected that many, if not all, of the Project's young tenants will spend most of their time outside their units in the City connecting. Notwithstanding, the Developer has designed upscale, highly efficient units with full kitchens and quality finishes, including granite countertop, bamboo designer cabinets, stainless steel and titanium colored appliances and an optional in-unit laundry. The studios are mini one bedroom units with an opaque sliding glass divider able to separate sleeping and the living areas. The loft units with 16 foot high ceilings in the living area, have the usable square footage of units twice their size.

The Project has seven levels of living space above the ground surface including the roof terrace, and three levels of subterranean parking below grade. The ground level includes retail and two apartment lobbies. A concrete podium deck separates the retail from the apartments above. The retail level on the first floor and the three garage floors will be Type I construction. The six levels of apartments above include five Building Code defined floors (two of these floors will be studio and two bedroom "flats" and one floor will be mezzanine lofts, with a mezzanine floor that does not count as separate floor for Building Code purposes). The mezzanine lofts and two story one bedroom lofts "stack" on the studios below. The four floors of residential (six levels) will be constructed with Type III wood construction.

  Building Sections

All residential parking, at a rate of one space per bedroom unit, will be parked onsite. Residential parking will be provided in three subterranean garage levels. Also provided in the garage is storage for 75 bikes and a laundry room (for those choosing not to pay for the optional in-unit laundry).

The parking for the retail will be in the 1128 unit City Parking Garage abutting the Project Site to the south. A total of 170 parking spaces will be provided with an annual maintenance fee of $15,000 - $20,000, under a Covenant Agreement with the City.

West Elevation

To provide exterior design variation on the Project’s primary corner, the Developer has designed eight units that are different than the balance of the units, six studios with 9' ceilings and two identical mezzanine loft units with 16’ high ceilings in the living area. These eight feature units will contain floor to ceiling storefront windows and each unit will have a balcony.

Other variations on the exterior of the residential portion of the building are obtained with the use of steel shade awnings, plaster joints, alternate plaster textures, and variation in plane depth and color. The ground floor retail Type I portion of the building will have a brick exterior with storefront windows to match adjacent buildings. Portions of this exterior, along Maryland Avenue, will have "nada" glass doors which fully fold open, stacking to the side, allowing the restaurants and entertainment on this floor to open to the street, with dining tables spilling out into the public sidewalk area creating an interactive street front.

Architectural interest on the exterior will also be created with two open stairways constructed of galvanized steel, one on each street elevation. These stairs open into naturally vented corridors.                                                                                              

The Project will have a WiFi coffee cafe lounge at the corner of           
Broadway and Maryland open to residents and the public           

Our full kitchens have been designed to use every inch of space

All 208 kitchens and baths are nearly identical. The kitchens are highly efficient and have been designed to use every inch of space. They contain a 2.4 cubic foot LG combination clothes washer and dryer, which will be provided as an option. If the tenant chooses not to select the option, a rolling drawer back will be provided in its absence. This combo washer and dryer provides tenants the ability to load and start the washing cycle as they leave for work and to return with the load fully dried and ready to fold.

The kitchen will include a full size dishwasher with quiet operation, a 3.3 cubic foot oven, a 4-burner electrical range stove top, a 1.5 cubic foot stainless steel microwave combination exhaust fan and a 18 cubic foot stainless refrigerator with a 4 cubic foot freezer. Two breadboards will be provided, one on each side of the sink to provide additional working surface and to meet ADA Requirements. A roll-out storage cart under the sink provides a storage area and meets ADA Requirements to allow wheelchair access at the sink area.

Countertops and backsplashes will be granite. The sinks will be stainless steel. The designer cabinets above the sink, with solid bamboo doors, contain 22 cubic feet of storage, plus an additional 10 cubic feet of storage provided above the refrigerator.

Six drawers are included below the upper cabinets to provide drawers which can not be accommodated below the counter with the solid line of below-countertop appliances in this highly efficient design. In keeping with efficiency, the kitchen floor area doubles as an entry hall.

Podium Plan

Above the podium deck the interior of the Project is configured around two courtyards. Each courtyard will have a large planter in the center with trees and other plants to provide pleasant courtyard views from the units on each side.

The Project roof is entirely devoted to providing onsite open space for Project tenants. This “Sky Terrace” will be decked with a trex decking system which is made of recycled and reclaimed plastic and wood. This product is hard, durable, and fade resistant, and has a long life. The trex deck panels will be suspended above a conventional built-up roofing system and roof wells containing condensers for the Project’s heat pump, heating and cooling system. There will be one condenser for each unit that can be accessed for service by removing one of the four foot by four foot trex panels at the end of each roof well.

The sky terrace will have two “hot tub” spas recessed into the roof. Both locations directly under the spas will have studio units on the fourth floor adjacent to the loft units allowing for rooms above these studios to accommodate the recessed spas and their mechanical equipment.

Sky Terrace

Sunning and conversation areas under circular steel shade screens will also be provided along with barbeques and eating areas arranged on the sky terrace around circular planters to divide the Sky Terrace into semi-private and open spaces. The sky terrace also includes a dog park, which will be automatically washed down with a sprinkler system twice a day draining through the trex decking and astro-turf into the sanitary sewer system. The need for this dog park was inspired by a 2008 Boston Consulting Group Study which cited pets as the #1 choice for what makes women extremely happy. The Project’s design, in this and other ways such as the unit kitchens, has been influenced by other venues which cater to a mix of young singles, who have demonstrated that men follow when they are successful attracting women.

Ground Floor Plan

The ground floor has two apartment lobbies with elevators. The main lobby off Maryland has a seating area adjacent to vehicle drop-off and pick-up directly outside in a pull out lane providing a “safe” place while waiting for a date. Sharing this lobby area is the leasing office. The fitness center is located behind the Broadway lobby. Both lobbies have mailrooms.

To further accommodate tenant opportunities to connect with each other, the Project’s management will coordinate active social programs including ski trips, beach outings, cultural events and opportunities to volunteer to help children in need and to work on programs to improve the environment.

In tune with this environmentally-conscious, green-aware generation, the project will be designed and certified at the LEED Silver level. The Plans and Elevations Section of this Offering identify in green colored notes the LEED items that the Project is providing in addition to the Developer’s efforts to support car free and park once programs and the reduced carbon footprint provided by the Project’s smaller units.

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